


when your heart is an empty room

by wearealltalesintheend



Series: a movie script ending [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, after 6b ended, basically what happens after the hospital, but im one year later to the party, theo needs a hug honestly, where is the epilogue we all deserved writers you cowards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 09:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16302569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearealltalesintheend/pseuds/wearealltalesintheend
Summary: “Stay.”Liam hears the word echoing all around the truck. It circles them like hungry sharks smelling blood in the water, and he needs a minute to recognize his own voice. Theo looks at him out of the corner of his eyes, face blank and lips in a thin line.“I’m serious,” Liam says because since he already began digging this grave he might as well lie in it, “you don’t have to go.”or, the one where Liam has no filter, but for once, maybe that's okay.





	when your heart is an empty room

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, like, I know this show ended a million years ago, but whatever man, Netflix only now made the last season available and someone definitely should have told me the last season was so good.
> 
> this might end up becoming a series, but I don't know yet, chime in if this fandom is still a Thing.
> 
> hope you all like it.

“Stay.”

 

Liam hears the word echoing all around the truck. It circles them like hungry sharks smelling blood in the water, and he needs a minute to recognize his own voice. Theo looks at him out of the corner of his eyes, face blank and lips in a thin line. 

 

“I’m serious,” Liam says because since he already began digging this grave he might as well lie in it, “you don’t have to go.”

 

Theo snorts quietly, but in the silence of the truck and to a werewolf’s ear, it’s gunfire loud. And, well, after these past few days, they know all about gunfire. Still, Theo snorts as if Liam is the crazy one for suggesting it, as if they are not both covered in blood and gunpowder and grime, as if Theo hadn’t been making plans in his head of leaving town as soon as he drops Liam off in the animal clinic. “You don’t mean that.”

 

“I do,” he argues, “and fuck you for thinking I don’t.”

 

“Are you going to punch me again?” Theo raises one eyebrow, not even having the decency to hide his amusement. “Because I’d appreciate it if you waited until the bullet on my shoulder is out to break my nose again.”

 

Liam scoffs, sinking into the seat. His head is still pounding with echoes of bullets flying past them and bones breaking under his fist and blood dripping on the floor, and his hands shake as the last drags of adrenaline leave his body. Right now, Liam feels more like a shell of a person than someone who could punch anyone else.

 

But then again, if anyone could make him angry enough, it would be Theo.

 

“Stop it,” Theo barks, amusement souring fast on his scent. Something bitter replaces it, but Liam is still new to this and reading chemosignals isn’t exactly something a crash course will teach you. “You’re spiraling and it’s distracting. So, stop it.”

 

“It doesn’t work like that,” Liam frowns, scrunching up his nose and rolling down the window. The fresh air fills the cabin, clearing his head a little, and it’s midnight cold outside, the streets are clear, empty, with lonely street lights flickering every once and again. It’s stupid, but it looks so, so wrong. It looks like a normal one way street, not a battlefield where people had been waving around the 21st-century version of torches and pitchforks. “And stop trying to change the subject.”

 

The truck stops at a red light and Liam kind of wants to laugh. As they wait for it to change back to green, Theo sighs in a very Theo kind of way– bone-deep tired, vaguely annoyed, and overly dramatic. “There’s no subject to change. You’re just being stupid.”

 

“I’m not the one stopping at a red light at one in the morning after half the town tried to kill us.”

 

“Only half?”

 

“Right, because  _ that  _ completely invalidates my point.” He rolls his eyes, huffing as the lights change and the truck comes to life again. “Seriously, don’t you wanna stay?”

 

“That’s not the point,” Theo is gripping the wheels with knuckles so white, Liam is surprised they’re still human. Deep slashes on the backseat upholstery tell him it wouldn’t be the first time the truck has been on the wrong end of Theo’s claws. “In fact, there isn’t a point, so drop it.”

 

“If there’s no point, then what should I drop?”

 

“Don’t try to be smart, you’ll hurt yourself.”

 

“Dude, come  _ on.” _

 

“ _ What,  _ Liam?” Tires screech to a halt as Theo swerves to the side. He parks the truck abruptly, probably half on the sidewalk, which is pretty rich coming from someone who just stopped at a red light on an empty road. But the look on his face is wild, like a cornered animal, and Liam is standing way too close to his personal space to be safe. “What do you want me to say?”

 

“Sorry,” he offers, looking down at his hands. There is blood under his fingernails, but he can’t remember if it’s his or not. “It’s just. I wanted you to know, you can stay if you want to. You don’t  _ have  _ to go.”

 

“Maybe I want to,” Theo exhales slowly, dragging a hand over his face and leaving a trail of soot and dried blood on its wake. When he opens his eyes, he regards Liam warily, “have you considered that? Maybe I’m tired of all the bullshit this town attracts.”

 

Well, no, not really. Liam hadn’t considered that. Theo had always sort of been there, in one way or the other, even after he died, he’d been dragged to hell under the tunnels of Beacon Hills. Which, fair enough, doesn’t add to the pros of staying now that he thinks about it.

 

But Theo is still looking at Liam like he’s waiting for something, expression hidden away into his carefully practiced way. And it makes Liam want to tear out his own hair because Theo of all people should know by now Liam isn’t good at picking up unspoken things. So, instead, he watches Theo back, watches the way his eyebrow twitches after a while, watches how his gray eyes look almost green in the low light, watches his lips still healing from the fight in the hospital even though the bruises on his cheekbone and jaw have already disappeared.

 

For one fleeting minute of momentary insanity, Liam wonders if hickeys would disappear just as quickly.

 

Liam blinks, trying to physically shake those thoughts away. Theo is still watching him, and he still looks ridiculously handsome in the half-shadows, although, after spending so long trailing around him, Liam knows for a fact Theo looks ridiculously handsome in any light, and–

 

And  _ oh.  _

 

Maybe it wasn’t so momentary after all.

 

Maybe Liam still has terrible timing when it comes to crushes.

 

Maybe he should say something before he looks too much like a crazy person staring in silence in a car.

 

“Do you?”

 

“What?” Theo frowns, sighing again, long-suffering and unnecessarily dramatic. He drums his fingers on the wheel, once, twice, before making a  _ go on _ kind of gesture.

 

“Want to skip town, I mean,” and then, because Liam processes things better if he’s saying it aloud and he’s never had that much of a filter anyway, he continues, “because I don’t think you do. Seriously, you had, like, the perfect opportunity after the Ghost Riders. Everyone was busy fighting off the Wild Hunt, you were the only one left in Beacon Hills. And afterward, everyone was still busy trying to jumpstart things back in order, the sword was still broken, Scott didn’t really care what you did anymore.  _ Seriously.  _ You had your chance, man.”

 

Theo doesn’t really say anything, except make a frustrated sort of sound at the back of his throat that sounds more like a growl as it passes through his gritted teeth, but he does start the truck again.

 

And Liam, well, he’s not counting it as a win, because it’s Theo, and things are never this easy when it comes to Theo Raeken. Liam would know, he was the one that brought him back from Hell to do this one very specific thing and now look at them. 

 

It’s ridiculous really.

 

“Have you considered,” Theo speaks again, voice softer, not  _ soft  _ because Theo has been to Hell and back, has been the Dread Doctors’ plaything for years, has done things that Liam, sometimes, still has nightmares about, and  _ soft  _ isn’t something he can do anymore. It’s probably been burned out of him a long, long time ago. But Liam likes to think that ever since coming back, Theo has been dusted off a little. He’s less homicidal psychopath and more reformed-Peter-Hale style. Anyway, “that maybe what I want isn’t the point either?”

 

“Of course it is,” Liam tells him, “ _ dude,  _ that’s like, the whole point.”

 

“Liam,” Theo stops him, “do you honestly think that Scott and the others will want me here now that the war is over?”

 

“Since when do you care?” 

 

“That’s not the point.”

 

“Then what the fuck is the point?” Liam feels his anger beginning to flare into life, a spark way too close to flammable shit like Liam’s entire emotional spectrum, and dangerously easy to become a wildfire on his chest. “Because I’m sure as shit too exhausted to play twenty questions.”

 

“The point is,” Theo is back at gripping the steering wheel like he wants to claw his way past leather, plastic, and metal, dissect it until all it’s left is an empty skeleton of a thing and exposed wires crackling with electricity. “There’s nothing for me here, okay? If Scott is smart, he won’t trust me ever again, or forgive me, for that matter. And he shouldn’t. None of you should, really. And I’m not exactly living my best life here, sleeping on my truck, Liam.” He presses down on the gas, picking up speed. The animal clinic isn’t far from here, Liam recognizes the neighborhood, they’re probably only a few blocks away. “Sounds like a lot of trouble just to get the door slammed on my face.”

 

Liam swallows thickly around the lump on his throat, trying to bite back all the words threatening to spill past his lips. Because the thing is, Theo isn’t wrong. There is so much bad blood between them, it’s hard to see past the dark red, and Liam can’t speak for the pack. He can’t promise Theo that one day Stiles might be okay with him, or even that Malia won’t try to claw his eyes out when they get to Deaton’s. All he knows is himself, all Liam has to offer is himself. “I didn’t know you were living in your truck.”

 

Theo snorts, but it doesn’t sound very funny, or very amused. “Not many places to go after you come back from the dead.”

 

“Why  _ did  _ you stay, then?”

 

“As I said,” he shrugs, grimacing as the motion jostles his injured shoulder, “not many places to go, not much better to do.”

 

“What changed?”

 

“You mean besides the honest-to-god war we  _ just  _ fought?” Theo shakes his head and parks the truck, keys still in the ignition. Outside, the  _ closed  _ sign hangs on the door to the clinic, but Liam can hear several heartbeats inside, and voices drift with words too quiet to make out. This isn’t the best place to talk, whoever’s inside must be able to hear them too, and Liam knows he won’t get an honest answer out of Theo now. “You’re tired, Liam. And I’m exhausted. You should go before they come looking for you.”

 

If he leaves now, Liam doubts he’ll see him tomorrow, or for much longer. Theo has that look on his eyes that is just a little too raw, too rattled, to be left alone. It’s the  _ I’m about to do something stupid  _ kind of look; stupid like leaving Beacon Hills for good.

 

“You should come in with me,” Liam decides, steeling himself for whatever argument Theo throws his way. “Let Deaton take a look at your shoulder.”

 

“It’s fine,” Theo says stiffly, rolling his shoulder and failing to hide his wince. “Get out of my car, Dunbar.”

 

“There’s a guest room in my place,” Liam continues, ignoring the flash of warning on his eyes, “my parents won’t mind.”

 

“What the hell, Liam.” Now, Theo sounds more bewildered than angry, like he can’t comprehend what Liam is telling him. “ _ What the hell.” _

 

“Just until we figure something better out, it won’t be forever. Just so you don’t have to sleep outside while there are still hunters around.” He looks up, studying the way Theo’s eyes flood with something warm in the fraction of a second that takes him to school himself back into his mask of indifference. It does funny things on Liam’s chest, a fluttering feeling of gold coating his ribcage and his heart skips a beat in a very noticeable way. “We can figure something out, Theo. You don’t have to go.”

 

“Don’t,” Theo says, quiet and muted, a whisper too loud not to carry in a silent place. It’s the same heavy whisper like in the hospital, too loaded with unspoken words. But man, Liam is so bad with unspoken things. “You can’t promise that.”

 

“I can’t promise you everyone will come around,” Liam agrees, “but you’re right. I’m tired and you’re tired, and pretending not to care is a very tiring thing to do. So, just, stay? I’d miss your stupid face too much if you go.”

 

“That’s not very nice,” a twist of his lips that might be a smile, “is that how you plan to convince me?”

 

“I’m not very nice,” Liam shrugs, ignoring the way his heart begins to beat on his chest, rabbit quick and spelling out  _ hope  _ with each beat. “You should know that by now.”

 

“I’m not either,” Theo says with a small laugh that sounds a little less like broken glass, a little less brittle.  _ This,  _ Liam counts as a win. Then, he clears his throat, any amusement dying on the somber look on his eyes, hands twitching on the wheel, claws flicking out briefly. “I don’t think I can be.”

 

They’re not talking about manners anymore, are they? “Maybe,” Liam answers carefully, trying to think of the right words to say, “but from what I’ve seen so far? You have to be at least a little, uh,  _ nice,  _ to talk me down from killing Nolan more than once. Or to take Gabe’s pain.” He grins, “sorry to break it to you, but only nice people do that.”

 

Theo looks at him thoughtfully, as if deciding if Liam’s lying. The lights flicker inside the clinic, on and off, on and off, on and off, and Liam laughs, feeling for the first time in the past weeks like a teenager. When he turns, Theo is smirking his default smirk, “looks like mom and dad want you to head inside.”

 

“Come with me,” Liam tells him one last time, “just for today.”

 

“Just for today?” Theo asks suspiciously, eyes surveying the empty street.

 

“Just for today,” he nods, already opening the passenger door, “a trial run. We take it one day a time. Okay?”

 

The lights flicker again, and this time Liam can hear Stiles’ impatient muttering from the back room. He looks at Theo from the open window, rapping his knuckles on the metal door in what he hopes isn’t goodbye and watches Theo sit perfectly still on the driver’s seat.  _ Please,  _ he thinks,  _ don’t leave too.  _

 

Liam heads inside alone.

 

Stiles levels him with an irritated glance, but Derek catches his attention, throwing a roll of gauze at his head before he could say anything. Malia doesn’t acknowledge Liam, too busy cleaning blood from Scott’s face, but the alpha looks inquisitively at Liam, a promise that they’ll talk later. Liam shrugs, sitting down heavily on the floor beside Mason and Corey.

 

“You okay, man?” Mason asks, concern written in all the lines of his face. Beside him, Corey leans forward, echoing the question.

 

“Yeah,” he begins saying, but the bell above the front door chimes and Theo pauses in the doorway, a deer in the headlights look on his eyes like he’s already regretting this. 

 

But then the world keeps spinning, Stiles keeps bickering with Derek, Lydia is still napping in the corner, Malia is still fussing over Scott, and no one is snarling at the chimera hovering at the edge of the pack. 

 

It’s not acceptance, but it’s progress.

 

Theo exhales slowly again, and follows Deaton to a metal table, quietly explaining his shoulder injury, still with the cornered animal look that hasn’t left his eyes ever since he dragged himself with shaking arms out of the ground, but also still here, still in Liam’s line of sight, still within arm’s reach.

 

It’s progress.

 

Liam grins, feeling like he’s breathing air for the first time since this whole war started, “yeah, man. I’m fine.”

 

And with a little more time, it might even be true.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hey you made it! if you liked it, maybe leave a kudo or a comment? Those seriously make my day!
> 
> or, you can come talk to me on [my tumblr](http://wearealltalesintheend.tumblr.com/)
> 
> and hey? thanks.


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